Church Has Work Cut Out For Post-Covid

‘The
shepherds should live with the smell of the sheep…. This is what I am asking
you – be shepherds with the smell of sheep.’ Thus spoke Pope Francis addressing
priests at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday on March 28, 2013. The Pope put it
more bluntly in his apostolic exhortation
Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of
the Gospel): “I want a Church which is poor and for the poor.” Covid 19 has
given an opportunity for the Church to prove that it is with the poor and for
the poor. It has offered an opening for the Church to proclaim that it continues
to be the salt of the earth without losing its saltiness.

The
livelihood of the people is going to hit hard in the post-Covid era. It is
heartening to see how various wings of the Church have come together to lend a
helping hand to the affected people. For example, Caritas India, along with its
close to 200 partner organisations based in dioceses, could reach out to over 5
million people across the country in one way or other. We have seen Church institutions
rolling up their sleeves and coming to the forefront offering hospitals, schools,
hostels, retreat houses, pastoral centres, etc. to accommodate people in quarantine.
The Chief Minister of Kerala himself, in one of the press conferences, warmly
acknowledged such helps. To cite another example, from among hundreds of initiatives
by Church organs, a congregation of sisters in Ranchi opened up a few shelter
homes wherein hundreds of famished migrants were taken care of.

But
the challenge is going to be bigger in the post-Covid days. It has to be on a
wider scale involving huge resources. There is going to be a litany of
problems, big and small, staring at the people who are left high and dry. There
will be a major mismatch between scarce resources and innumerable tasks at
hand. To cope with this herculean task, the Church has to rework its
priorities. Several prelates in the past have thrown light on what should be
the new focus of the Church. Cardinal George Alencherry has eloquently argued
against constructing big churches and indulging in pompous shows during
festivals. “The Church should avoid
every type of extravaganza. The Church is poor and it belongs to the poor,” he
said in a recent interview to a newspaper. Similar sentiments have been expressed
by many bishops too.

The
Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), in a recent press release, has
acknowledged the crucial need to extend succour to people during and after the
lockdown. It foresees a big role for the Church in rebuilding life of those who
have fallen in bad times due to Covid impact. The forthcoming conference of the
KCBC is reportedly going to take a close look at the gargantuan task in hand. The Church in India too needs to go in for
hard decisions to overcome hardships of her people. A meaningful
socio-development strategy has to be worked out by the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of India. It might have to say a firm ‘no’ to uncalled-for
construction activities; it will have to put its foot down on pointless pageantry
during festivals and wasteful celebrations by various wings of the Church.
Or else the shepherd will be separated from the sheep without the ‘smell’ the
Pope refers to.